Sergei Nechaev: the evil genius of the revolution. Sergei Gennadievich Nechaev

The leader of the People's Reprisal organization, who served as the prototype of Pyotr Verkhovensky in Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel "Demons", was born 168 years ago - on October 2, 1847. the site recalls how a parochial school teacher became one of the ideologists of the revolutionary movement in tsarist Russia.

Boy from a poor family

Nechaev's path to glory, saturated with blood and the cold passion of the revolutionary cause, began in St. Petersburg, where the 19-year-old young man came to study and work.

Sergei Nechaev taught at the parochial school. Photo: commons.wikimedia.org

The son of a poor waiter from Ivanovo from childhood did not want to be content with the role of a servant and diligently studied science. Despite the fact that there was little money in the family, the boy was paid for classes with mentors who introduced him to mathematics, rhetoric, history, as well as Latin and foreign languages.

In 1866, the young man arrived in the city on the Neva, where at that time anti-government sentiments were felt in society. The youth read the novel “What is to be done?”, which Nikolai Chernyshevsky wrote while in solitary confinement of the Alekseevsky ravelin of the Peter and Paul Fortress. As one of the most influential anarchist theorists Pyotr Kropotkin recalled at that time, for the Russian youth of that time this book became “a kind of revelation and turned into a program, became a kind of banner.” Another event that excited the minds of radical citizens was an attempt to assassinate the emperor: in 1866, at the gates of the Summer Garden, the terrorist Dmitry Karakozov tried to shoot Alexander II, but missed and was detained.

According to historians, this influenced the formation of the views of Nechaev, who worked as a teacher in a parochial school and attended lectures at St. Petersburg University as a volunteer. During that period, he became close to people who were also burning with the desire to change the existing world order, without stopping at anything. In the late 60s of the 19th century, participants in the student movement developed a "Program of revolutionary measures." In working on it, Nechaev expressed radical ideas, which were later embodied later in the "Catechism of a Revolutionary", the charter of the revolutionary organization "People's Reprisal".

"Catechism of the Revolutionary"

“A revolutionary is a doomed person; he has no interests of his own, no deeds, no feelings, no attachments, no property, no name. He abandoned worldly science, leaving it to future generations. He knows ... only the science of destruction, for this he studies ... mechanics, chemistry, perhaps medicine .... He despises public opinion, despises and hates ... the current public morality.

"Severe for himself and for others"

The charter, which absorbed the ideas of "revolutionary Machiavellianism", trampling on the foundations of morality and based on brute force, saw the light in 1869.

The document gave a clear definition of what a real fighter of the revolution should be, ready to "sever all connection with the civil order and with the entire educated world."

“Severe for himself, he must be harsh for others. All tender, pampering feelings of kinship, friendship, love, gratitude, and even honor itself must be crushed in him by the single cold passion of the revolutionary cause, ”the Catechism said. It was noted that such a person, if necessary, should be ready even to sacrifice his life.

Sergey Nechaev turned from words to deeds. In the secret organization "People's Reprisal" he created, he introduced strict discipline based on unconditional obedience to him as a leader. He decided to demonstrate his readiness to commit any crime, as well as to "tie" the members of the union with blood, with the help of murder. The victim was 23-year-old student Ivan Ivanov. The reason for the massacre was that Ivanov spoke out against the idea of putting up leaflets at the Petrovsky Academy.

This behavior was regarded by Nechaev as a betrayal - Ivanov was sentenced to death.

It was carried out on November 21, 1869. Nechaev and four other members of the circle met with the victim in the grotto of the village of Petrovsko-Razumovskoye. The plan to strangle the "traitor" with a scarf was thwarted by the active resistance offered by Ivanov. As a result, the attackers managed to stun the student. Nechaev personally shot a former colleague in the head with a revolver.

The murderers failed to hide the crime. The corpse was thrown into a pond, where a peasant passing by found it 4 days later.

The gendarmes managed to quickly get on the trail of the criminals. In the victim's pocket were documents pointing to the two defendants in the case. Soon the members of the "People's Punishment" were detained. In total, the court involved 87 people in the case. Sergei Nechaev managed to escape to Switzerland. He did not stay free for long - in August 1872 he was extradited to Russia, where the court sentenced him to 20 years of hard labor.

A particularly dangerous criminal was placed in the Alekseevsky ravelin of the Peter and Paul Fortress, where he died on November 21, 1882.

smart and dangerous

The trial of the "Nechayevites" caused a huge scandal. The "Catechism of the Revolutionary" was attached to the case, showing the "demons" of modern society.

By that time, Dostoevsky was already considering the idea of writing "The Life of a Great Sinner." The high-profile case prompted the writer to create a novel in which the role of the main intriguer, cunning and insidious was assigned to Pyotr Verkhovensky, the prototype of which was Sergey Nechaev.

Citizenship:

Russian empire

Date of death:

Sergei Gennadievich Nechaev(September 20, Ivanovo, now Ivanovo - November 21, St. Petersburg) - Russian nihilist and revolutionary of the 19th century. Leader of the "People's Reprisal". Convicted for the murder of student Ivanov.

Biography

Sergei Nechaev's father is the illegitimate son of the landowner Pyotr Epishev, a serf by birth. He was adopted by a painter G.P. Pavlov and received the surname Nechaev (“unexpected”, “unexpected”). Nechaev spent his childhood in Ivanovo. Having moved to Moscow (1865), he was engaged in self-education, was close to the writer F. D. Nefyodov. Passed the teacher's exam; from the autumn of 1868 he conducted revolutionary propaganda among the students of St. Petersburg University and the Medical Academy; the student uprisings of February 1869 were largely his work.

Emigration

Then he went abroad, entered into relations with Bakunin and Ogaryov, received through the latter from Herzen 1000 pounds. Art. (from the so-called "Bakhmetiev Fund") to the cause of the revolution, and through the first he joined the International Society.

People's Punishment Society

Second emigration

Nechaev published the magazine "People's Punishment" abroad. Most Russian emigrants have extremely unpleasant memories of him. Even Bakunin, whose closest follower was Nechaev, writes about him in one letter (published in the collection of Bakunin's letters, ed. Dragomanov), as a dishonest person, capable of spying, opening other people's letters, lying, etc.

The extremely negative characterization of the younger generation of revolutionaries made by Herzen (in his posthumous articles) was apparently inspired by his acquaintance with Nechaev.

Extradition and trial

Prisoner of the Peter and Paul Fortress

In the fortress, Nechaev gained great influence on the guard soldiers, who considered him a high-ranking person, and through them entered into relations with the Narodnaya Volya, who were at large. Zhelyabov invited him to arrange his escape from the fortress, but Nechaev refused, not wanting to interfere with the success of the revolutionary plans, which he to some extent led.

Vera Figner does not agree with this opinion. In her “Implemented Work” (vol. 1, ch. 10, § 4), she writes about the choice between the attempt on Alexander II and the organization of Nechaev’s escape: “In the literature, I met an indication that the Committee left Nechaev to decide which of the two cases put in the first place, and as if Nechaev spoke in favor of the assassination attempt. The Committee could not ask such a question; he could not suspend preparations on Malaya Sadovaya and doom them to an almost inevitable collapse. He simply informed Nechaev about the state of affairs, and he replied that, of course, he would wait. The purest fiction is also Tikhomirov's story, that Zhelyabov visited the island of ravelin, was under Nechaev's window and spoke with him. It wasn't, it couldn't be. Zhelyabov was assigned a responsible role in the alleged assassination attempt. A mine on Malaya Sadovaya could explode a little earlier or a little later than the passage of the sovereign's crew. In this case, at both ends of the street, four throwers were to use their explosive shells. But even if the shells had missed, Zhelyabov, armed with a dagger, had to finish the job, and this time we decided to finish it at all costs. Is it possible that with such a plan, the Committee would allow Zhelyabov to go to the ravelin, not to mention the fact that it was impossible to take him there at all? And would Zhelyabov himself have taken such an aimless and insane risk not only with himself and his role on Sadovaya, but also with the release of Nechaev? Never!"

Nechaev advised Zhelyabov to resort for revolutionary purposes to the methods of spreading false rumors, to extorting money, etc., but Zhelyabov did not agree; on this basis, Nechaev parted ways with Narodnaya Volya.

Nechaev's conspiracy was handed over to the authorities by Narodnaya Volya member Leon Mirsky, who was serving a hard term in Alekseevsky ravelin. The soldiers from the garrison of the Peter and Paul Fortress were sued for organizing relations between Nechaev and the will and were sentenced to various punishments.

In literature

Nechaev served as the prototype for Pyotr Verkhovensky in Dostoevsky's novel The Demons; the plot of Shatov's murder is connected with the murder of Ivanov by Nechaev.

Notes

Literature

Burtsev, "For a hundred years" (L., 1897);
Tun, "History of revolutionary movements in Russia" (St. Petersburg, 1906);
Notes about Nechaev (in a negative spirit, since it is a question of Nechaev's personal decency, and enthusiastic, since it is a question of the firmness of his will, energy and convictions) in the Bulletin of Narodnaya Volya, No. 1.
The speech of Spasovich, who defended Kuznetsov, Tkachev and Tomilova in the first part of the Nechaev Trial, see Volume V of Spasovich's Works (St. Petersburg, 1893).
On the Nechaev case, see Art. K. Arseniev in No. 11 of the Vestnik Evropy for 1871

Nihilism
Directions	Mereological nihilism Metaphysical nihilism ( English) Epistemological nihilism Moral nihilism ( English) Legal nihilism Russian nihilism ( German)
Figures	Ivan Pryzhov · Sergey Nechaev
In culture	Demons (novel) Fathers and Sons Evgeny Bazarov Nihilist Nihilist
Explored nihilism	Baudrillard, Jean Kierkegaard, Soren Nietzsche, Friedrich Reich, Wilhelm Fromm, Erich Heidegger, Martin Spengler, Oswald Jacobi, Friedrich Heinrich
Related ideas

Sergey Gennadyevich Nechaev was born in the village of Ivanovo in 1848, at a time when the "ghost of communism" was already roaming Europe, and the best minds were wandering in the Russian Empire - secret societies were formed, criminal liberal conversations were going on and rapidly growing on the yeast of utopian socialism freethinking. All this fermentation was carefully collected by a secret investigation, carefully corked up in a bottle of Alekeyevsky ravelin and sealed with imperial sealing wax. And over time, this mash would have turned into a noble old wine, ideally suited to the abolition of serfdom and the introduction of a constitutional monarchy, if not for Sergei Gennadievich Nechaev.

Ivanovo is not a city of no brides

This is Ivanovo for us - the city of brides, and for the imperial court Ivanovo, even if it was a village until 1871, was a source of constant headache. This center of light industry produced not only flax, but also selected proletarians. This ended with the formation of the first Soviet of Workers' Deputies in Russia during the First Russian Revolution of 1905.

Sergei Nechaev had no other objective reasons to grow into the leader of the revolutionary movement. The son of provincial philistines who had a modest income and more than a modest desire for public life, he voluntarily went to study, studied the works of foreign scientists, and even corresponded with the writer F. D. Nefedov. By the age of 18, he makes several attempts to escape from the "damn swamp", as he called his city. The result of the efforts was a successfully passed examination for the city parish teacher in St. Petersburg, the capital of the empire at that time, and the position of a teacher of the junior class of the Law of God.

Purposefulness, energy, determination and self-confidence - all these qualities were somehow surprisingly laid down in Sergey and began to manifest themselves from childhood. Thanks to them, he achieved all the goals that he set for himself. In our time, they would say - self-made man. And about it right now.

teacher and student

Once in the capital, Sergei drags out a miserable existence as a teacher - an official of the last class. Meanwhile, a seething brook of life rushes right under his nose: somewhere there, under the desks, unreliability was secretly flowing and immorality was gaining strength. From scraps of random conversations, Nechaev learns about the Petrashevites, Karakozov, and the Ishutinskaya underground organization. Finally, by chance, Nechaev finds himself in one of the student circles and realizes that this is his native element. He leaves all sorts of affairs, almost abandons the service and completely devotes himself to student affairs. A twenty-year-old teacher by profession and a student by vocation formulates the goal of his life - "social and political revolution" - and draws up a "Program of revolutionary action."

“The complete freedom of the renewed personality lies in the social revolution. Only a radical restructuring of absurd and unjust social relations can give people lasting and true happiness. But it is impossible to achieve this under the current political system, because it is in the interests of the existing government to interfere with this in every possible way, and, as you know, the government has all the means for this. Therefore, as long as the real political system of society exists, economic reform is impossible, the only way out is a political revolution, the destruction of the nest of existing power, state reform. So, the social revolution is our ultimate goal and the political revolution is the only means to achieve this goal.

However, a revolution cannot be made alone. Allies were needed. But there was a problem with this: Nechaev practically did not know people, he did not know how to communicate with them. Despite his energy and determination to recruit supporters of his views among students, Nechaev did not succeed well. He frightened with his passion and fearlessness, calls for demonstrations and thoughtless ardor. As a result, the moderate wing of the free-thinking students declared a boycott against him.

In order to achieve success, Sergei acts on the principle “the worse, the better” - anonymously denounces activists, pits students against their bosses, and pushes everyone to open protest. Not for self-interest and not for pride. To capture the wind of change, Nechaev wanted to set sail on the frail vessel of the student community before it drifted to the firm and trustworthy shore of the senior years.

Geneva

As you know, to become an authority, you need to serve time. To become an authority quickly, arrest and imprisonment can be staged. This is exactly what Nechaev does - he throws up a note allegedly from a police carriage carrying him “to the fortress”. And he goes to Switzerland, to the glorious city of Geneva.

This is now Geneva - a paradise for pensioners, and then the clockwork of revolutionary bombs was checked by Swiss chronometers; the time of the Shushensky cuckoo clock has not yet come. However, pensioners chose the gentle banks of the Leman even then. Among them were the brisk old men Bakunin, Herzen and Ogarev, on whose support Nechaev counted.

If Herzen and Ogarev calmly criticized the Russian government through the emigrant "Bell" and did not want to spoil their well-deserved old age with extremism, then Bakunin, who at one time took an active part in the Prague and Dresden popular uprisings, for which he almost paid with his head, was not ready to put up with it . He had his own - anarchist - philosophy ready, which involved the replacement of states by free autonomous societies, organized "from the bottom up" and insistently demanding implementation. It was a matter of small things - to find volunteers who would agree to destroy the states, and there they would not rust behind the lumpenproletarians.

It is clear that Bakunin saw in Nechaev the one with whose hands he would bring the saving fire of anarchy to Russia. And Nechaev, for nothing that he was young, allowed Bakunin to see everything he wanted, including a powerful and numerous secret organization under his strict control, and readiness for an uprising. For this, he procured funds from Herzen and Ogarev from the so-called Bakhmetiev Fund, provided theoretical support, in particular, helped to publish the famous Revolutionary Catechism, which began like this:

"A revolutionary is a doomed person. He has neither his own interests, nor deeds, nor feelings, nor affections, nor property, nor even a name. Everything in him is absorbed by one exclusive interest, one thought, one passion - revolution." ("Catechism of the Revolutionary", 1869)

But most importantly, he issued him a fake mandate on behalf of "representatives of the Russian department of the world revolutionary union", having sealed it with his real signature. With such a respected sponsor, Nechaev returned to Russia feeling like a true revolutionary. He did not even think of carrying out Bakunin's instructions. He did not think at all about what would happen next, he was not interested in any philosophy, not even anarchism:

"The revolutionary despises all doctrinairism and refuses worldly science, leaving it to future generations. He knows only one science - the science of destruction." ("Catechism of the Revolutionary", 1869)

Unfortunately, he managed to deceive not only the Genevan emigrants, the gendarmerie and fellow students, but also himself - he believed in his power over the all-powerful revolutionary organization. In which it was on his return to the capital on the strength of a couple of dozen green students.

Crime and Punishment

In 1866, Dostoevsky posed the question point-blank: "Am I a trembling creature, or do I have a right?" In 1869, Nechaev unequivocally responded to it by organizing the murder of one of his associates, Ivan Ivanovich Ivanov, who refused to obey the order. Nechaev acted on behalf of the powerful Committee of the "People's Punishment" society with headquarters in Geneva, which, of course, did not exist in nature. Thus, he created the impression of being involved in a common great cause, from which there is no way out except death. “A revolutionary is a doomed man” - it was time to prove this to his accomplices in practice. The unfortunate Ivanov was lured to a wasteland and strangled, and they tried to drown his corpse under the ice of the Neva.

"He, in the depths of his being, not only in words, but in deeds, severed all connection with the civil order and with the entire educated world, with all the laws, decency, generally accepted conventions and morality of this world. He is a merciless enemy for him, and if he continued to live in it, only in order to more accurately destroy it. ("Catechism of the Revolutionary", 1869)

In less than a couple of months, as the crime, committed in an amateurish manner, was fully disclosed, all participants were captured and brought to justice. However, Nechaev himself was not among them - he again fled abroad in search of help. It was the first open political trial in Russia. I think it would not be worth saying that he was also the last.

Conclusion

Arriving again in Switzerland, Nechaev tried to develop the hoax he had previously created among Russian emigrants - now the bloodhounds from the political investigation that were chasing him, willy-nilly, worked for his revolutionary reputation. However, it was impossible to ingratiate himself after he swindled Bakunin and tried to blackmail the heirs of the already deceased Herzen, even with all the gullibility of the then public. For his methods he was condemned by those on whose help he relied. After all, he was already waiting and wanting to be arrested. According to the denunciation of Adolf Stempkovsky, secretary of the international Marxist section, on July 29, 1872, Sergei Nechaev was captured and soon transferred to Russia.

As the cruelly deceived Bakunin believed, Nechaev "will die a hero." Despite the fact that the court sentenced him to civil execution and 20 years of hard labor, Nicholas II with a stroke of the pen cancels this decision and puts up a resolution: "... to imprison forever in a fortress."

Almost 10 years after the trial, and to the same day 13 years after the murder of Ivanov, Sergei Nechaev, a prisoner in cell No. 1 of the Secret House of the Alekseevsky Ravelin, died, starved of illness, malnutrition and loneliness.

Conclusion (in the sense of an epilogue)

By the time Sergei Nechaev was 25 years old, the entire civilized world, including the revolutionaries, was afraid of him. Marx and Engels disowned him, branding his interpretation of communism as "barracks communism." The deceived anarchist Bakunin angrily called his Catechism "The Catechism of the Abreks." Frightened Dostoevsky, one of the Petrashevites, called Nechaev and his followers “Demons” and wrote a book of the same name about them. The Emperor of the Russian Land in fear exceeded his powers and took advantage of his official position to escape from him.

Encyclopedic YouTube

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✪ The trial of Sergei Nechaev (says historian Alexei Kuznetsov)

✪ The beginning of the Patriotic War of 1812 (historian Sergei Nechaev tells)

✪ NECHAYEV Sergey

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Subtitles

Biography

Inspired by an unsuccessful attempt on the life of the emperor Karakozov, Nechaev took part in the student movement in 1868-1869, leading a radical minority together with Peter Tkachev and others. Nechaev took part in the development of the "Program of revolutionary measures", in which social revolution was seen as the ultimate goal of their movement. The program also suggests ways to create a revolutionary organization and carry out subversive activities.

Emigration

Then he went abroad, entered into relations with Bakunin and Ogaryov, received from the latter 10,000 francs (400 pounds from the so-called "Bakhmetevsky" fund, which Ogaryov managed jointly with Herzen) for the cause of the revolution, and through the first he joined to the International Society.

People's Punishment Society

Second emigration

Nechaev published the journal Narodnaya Raspava abroad and resumed the publication of Kolokol together with Ogarev and Bakunin. Most Russian emigrants have extremely unpleasant memories of him. Even Bakunin, whose closest follower was Nechaev, writes about him in one letter (published in the collection of Bakunin's letters, ed. Dragomanov), as a dishonest person, capable of spying, opening other people's letters, lying, etc.

The extremely negative characterization of the younger generation of revolutionaries made by Herzen (in his posthumous articles) was apparently inspired by his acquaintance with Nechaev.

Extradition and trial

Prisoner of the Peter and Paul Fortress

Nechaev's conspiracy was handed over to the authorities by the People's Will Leon Mirsky, who was serving a hard term in Alekseevsky Ravelin. A soldier from the garrison of the Peter and Paul Fortress was tried for organizing relations between Nechaev and the will and sentenced to various punishments. Shortly thereafter, Nechaev died in prison from dropsy, complicated by scurvy.

Nechaev in the revolutionary movement and in anarchism

At the age of 18, Sergei joined a circle of anarchists (Z. K. Ralli, V. N. Cherkezov and F. V. Volkhovsky) and libertarian socialists (Mark Natanson, German Lopatin and L. V. Goldenberg). Cooperation with Bakunin in 1869 led to the creation of the Catechism of the Revolutionary, which gave rise to many disputes and splits in the movements and in the international. Showing himself as a devoted radical revolutionary, he had a profound influence on the revolutionary movement. Ruthless terror, the subordination of means to an end became a weapon of struggle, gaining momentum, and the catechism became the bible for the revolutionaries. The term "nechaevshchina" appeared. "Nechaevshchina" turned out to be such a radical revolutionary movement with an aim to achieve its goal in any way that it caused disgust in many movements and influenced the reputation of anarchism as a movement with a goal of terror.

« Salvation for the people can be only that revolution, which will destroy in the bud all statehood and exterminate all state traditions.»

Biography

Inspired by an unsuccessful attempt on the life of Emperor Karakozov, Nechaev took part in the student movement in 1868-1869, leading a radical minority together with Pyotr Tkachev and others. Nechaev took part in the development of the "Program of revolutionary measures", in which social revolution was seen as the ultimate goal of their movement. The program also suggests ways to create a revolutionary organization and carry out subversive activities.

Emigration

Then he went abroad, entered into relations with Bakunin and Ogaryov, received from the latter 10,000 francs (400 pounds from the so-called "Bakhmetevsky Fund", which Ogaryov managed jointly with Herzen) for the cause of the revolution, and through the first he joined to the International Society.

People's Punishment Society

Second emigration

The extremely negative characterization of the younger generation of revolutionaries made by Herzen (in his posthumous articles) was apparently inspired by his acquaintance with Nechaev.

Extradition and trial

Prisoner of the Peter and Paul Fortress

Nechaev's conspiracy was handed over to the authorities by Narodnaya Volya member Leon Mirsky, who was serving a hard term in the Alekseevsky ravelin. A soldier from the garrison of the Peter and Paul Fortress was tried for organizing relations between Nechaev and the will and sentenced to various punishments. Shortly thereafter, Nechaev died in prison from dropsy, complicated by scurvy.

Nechaev in the revolutionary movement and in anarchism

At the age of 18, Sergei joined a circle of anarchists (Z. K. Ralli, V. N. Cherkezov and F. V. Volkhovsky) and libertarian socialists (Mark Natanson, German Lopatin and L. V. Goldenberg). Cooperation with Bakunin in 1869 led to the creation of the Catechism of the Revolutionary, which gave rise to many disputes and splits in the movements and in the international. Showing himself as a devoted radical revolutionary, he had a profound influence on the revolutionary movement. Ruthless terror, the subordination of means to an end became a weapon of struggle, gaining momentum, and the catechism became the bible for the revolutionaries. The term "nechaevshchina" appeared. "Nechaevshchina" turned out to be such a radical revolutionary movement with an aim to achieve its goal in any way that it caused disgust in many currents and influenced the reputation of anarchism as a current with a goal of terror.

« Salvation for the people can be only that revolution, which will destroy in the bud all statehood and exterminate all state traditions.»

In literature

Nechaev served as the prototype for Pyotr Verkhovensky in Dostoevsky's novel The Demons; the plot of Shatov's murder is connected with the murder of Ivanov by Nechaev.
Nechaev is one of the characters in Edward Radzinsky's historical novel Prince. Notes of a snitch" from 2013.

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Literature

Notes

An excerpt characterizing Nechaev, Sergei Gennadievich

In the evening of the same day, a lively conversation was going on at Denisov's apartment among the officers of the squadron.
“And I’m telling you, Rostov, that you need to apologize to the regimental commander,” said the tall staff captain, with graying hair, huge mustaches and large features of a wrinkled face, addressing the crimson red, agitated Rostov.
The staff captain Kirsten was twice demoted to the soldiers for deeds of honor and twice cured.
"I won't let anyone tell you I'm lying!" cried Rostov. He told me that I was lying, and I told him that he was lying. And so it will remain. They can put me on duty even every day and put me under arrest, but no one will make me apologize, because if he, as a regimental commander, considers himself unworthy of giving me satisfaction, then ...
- Yes, you wait, father; you listen to me, - the captain interrupted the staff in his bass voice, calmly smoothing his long mustache. - You tell the regimental commander in front of other officers that the officer stole ...
- It's not my fault that the conversation started in front of other officers. Maybe I shouldn't have spoken in front of them, but I'm not a diplomat. I then joined the hussars and went, thinking that subtleties are not needed here, but he tells me that I am lying ... so let him give me satisfaction ...
- That's all right, no one thinks that you are a coward, but that's not the point. Ask Denisov, does it look like something for a cadet to demand satisfaction from a regimental commander?
Denisov, biting his mustache, listened to the conversation with a gloomy look, apparently not wanting to intervene in it. When asked by the captain's staff, he shook his head negatively.
“You are talking to the regimental commander about this dirty trick in front of the officers,” the headquarters captain continued. - Bogdanich (Bogdanich was called the regimental commander) laid siege to you.
- He didn’t siege, but said that I was telling a lie.
- Well, yes, and you said something stupid to him, and you need to apologize.
- Never! shouted Rostov.
“I didn’t think it was from you,” the headquarters captain said seriously and sternly. - You do not want to apologize, and you, father, not only before him, but before the whole regiment, before all of us, you are to blame all around. And here's how: if only you thought and consulted how to deal with this matter, otherwise you directly, but in front of the officers, and thumped. What should the regimental commander do now? Should we put the officer on trial and mess up the entire regiment? Shame the entire regiment because of one villain? So, what do you think? But in our opinion, it is not. And well done Bogdanich, he told you that you are not telling the truth. It’s unpleasant, but what to do, father, they themselves ran into it. And now, as they want to hush up the matter, so you, because of some kind of fanabery, do not want to apologize, but want to tell everything. You are offended that you are on duty, but why should you apologize to an old and honest officer! Whatever Bogdanich may be, but all honest and brave, old colonel, you are so offended; and messing up the regiment is okay for you? - The voice of the captain's staff began to tremble. - You, father, are in the regiment for a week without a year; today here, tomorrow they moved to adjutants somewhere; you don’t give a damn what they will say: “Thieves are among the Pavlograd officers!” And we don't care. So, what, Denisov? Not all the same?
Denisov remained silent and did not move, occasionally glancing with his shining black eyes at Rostov.
“Your fanabery is dear to you, you don’t want to apologize,” continued the headquarters captain, “but we old people, how we grew up, and God willing, will die in the regiment, so the honor of the regiment is dear to us, and Bogdanich knows it. Oh, how dear, father! And this is not good, not good! Take offense there or not, but I will always tell the truth to the uterus. Not good!
And the captain's staff stood up and turned away from Rostov.
- Pg "avda, chog" take it! shouted Denisov, jumping up. - Well, G "skeleton! Well!
Rostov, blushing and turning pale, looked first at one officer, then at another.
- No, gentlemen, no ... don’t think ... I understand very well, you shouldn’t think so about me ... I ... for me ... I am for the honor of the regiment. but what? I will show this in practice, and for me the honor of the banner ... well, it’s all the same, really, it’s my fault! .. - Tears stood in his eyes. - I'm to blame, all around to blame! ... Well, what else do you want? ...
“That’s it, count,” the captain shouted, turning around, hitting him on the shoulder with his big hand.
“I’m telling you,” Denisov shouted, “he’s a nice little one.
“That’s better, Count,” repeated the captain of the staff, as if for his recognition he was beginning to call him a title. - Go and apologize, your excellency, yes s.
“Gentlemen, I’ll do everything, no one will hear a word from me,” Rostov said in an imploring voice, “but I can’t apologize, by God, I can’t, as you wish!” How will I apologize, like a little one, to ask for forgiveness?
Denisov laughed.
- It's worse for you. Bogdanych is vindictive, pay for your stubbornness, - said Kirsten.
- By God, not stubbornness! I can't describe to you the feeling, I can't...
- Well, your will, - said the headquarters captain. - Well, where did this bastard go? he asked Denisov.
- He said he was sick, zavtg "and ordered pg" and by order to exclude, - Denisov said.
“This is a disease, otherwise it cannot be explained,” said the captain of the staff.
- Already there, the disease is not a disease, and if he doesn’t catch my eye, I’ll kill you! Denisov shouted bloodthirstyly.
Zherkov entered the room.
- How are you? the officers suddenly turned to the newcomer.
- Walk, gentlemen. Mack surrendered as a prisoner and with the army, absolutely.
- You're lying!
- I saw it myself.
- How? Have you seen Mac alive? with arms or legs?
- Hike! Campaign! Give him a bottle for such news. How did you get here?
“They sent him back to the regiment, for the devil, for Mack. The Austrian general complained. I congratulated him on the arrival of Mack ... Are you, Rostov, just from the bathhouse?
- Here, brother, we have such a mess for the second day.
The regimental adjutant entered and confirmed the news brought by Zherkov. Tomorrow they were ordered to speak.
- Go, gentlemen!
- Well, thank God, we stayed too long.

Kutuzov retreated to Vienna, destroying the bridges on the rivers Inn (in Braunau) and Traun (in Linz). On October 23, Russian troops crossed the Enns River. Russian convoys, artillery and columns of troops in the middle of the day stretched through the city of Enns, along this and that side of the bridge.
The day was warm, autumnal and rainy. The expansive vista that opened up from the elevation where the Russian batteries stood defending the bridge was suddenly covered by a muslin curtain of slanting rain, then suddenly expanded, and in the light of the sun objects, as if covered with varnish, became far and clearly visible. You could see the town under your feet with its white houses and red roofs, the cathedral and the bridge, on both sides of which, crowding, the masses of Russian troops poured. At the turn of the Danube one could see ships, and an island, and a castle with a park, surrounded by the waters of the confluence of the Enns with the Danube, one could see the left bank of the Danube, rocky and covered with pine forests, with a mysterious distance of green peaks and blue gorges. The towers of the monastery could be seen, standing out from behind a pine, seemingly untouched, wild forest; far ahead on the mountain, on the other side of the Enns, the enemy patrols could be seen.
Between the guns, at a height, stood in front the head of the rearguard, a general with a retinue officer, examining the terrain through a pipe. A little behind, sitting on the trunk of the gun, Nesvitsky, sent from the commander-in-chief to the rearguard.
The Cossack accompanying Nesvitsky handed over a purse and a flask, and Nesvitsky treated the officers to pies and real doppelkumel. The officers joyfully surrounded him, some on their knees, some sitting in Turkish on the wet grass.
- Yes, this Austrian prince was not a fool that he built a castle here. Nice place. What don't you eat, gentlemen? Nesvitsky said.
“I humbly thank you, prince,” answered one of the officers, talking with pleasure to such an important staff official. - Beautiful place. We passed by the park itself, saw two deer, and what a wonderful house!
“Look, prince,” said another, who really wanted to take another pie, but was ashamed, and who therefore pretended to look around the area, “look, our infantrymen have already climbed there. Over there, on the meadow, behind the village, three people are dragging something. "They're going to take over this palace," he said with visible approval.
“This and that,” said Nesvitsky. “No, but what I would like,” he added, chewing the pie in his beautiful wet mouth, “is to climb up there.
He pointed to a monastery with towers, visible on the mountain. He smiled, his eyes narrowed and lit up.
“It would be nice, gentlemen!
The officers laughed.
- If only to scare these nuns. Italians, they say, are young. Really, I would give five years of my life!
"They're bored, after all," said the bolder officer, laughing.
Meanwhile, the retinue officer, who was standing in front, pointed out something to the general; the general looked through the telescope.
“Well, that’s how it is, that’s how it is,” the general said angrily, lowering the receiver from his eyes and shrugging his shoulders, “that’s how it is, they will start hitting the crossing. And what are they doing there?
On the other side, with a simple eye, the enemy and his battery were visible, from which a milky white smoke appeared. Following the smoke, a long-range shot rang out, and it was clear how our troops hurried at the crossing.
Nesvitsky, panting, got up and, smiling, approached the general.
“Would your Excellency want to have a bite to eat?” - he said.
- It's not good, - said the general, without answering him, - ours hesitated.
“Would you like to go, Your Excellency?” Nesvitsky said.
“Yes, please go,” said the general, repeating what had already been ordered in detail, “and tell the hussars to be the last to cross and light the bridge, as I ordered, and to inspect the combustible materials on the bridge.
“Very well,” answered Nesvitsky.
He called a Cossack with a horse, ordered him to put away his purse and flask, and easily threw his heavy body onto the saddle.
“Really, I’ll stop by the nuns,” he said to the officers, who looked at him with a smile, and drove along the winding path downhill.
- Nut ka, where he will inform, captain, stop it! - said the general, turning to the gunner. - Get rid of boredom.
“Servant to the guns!” the officer commanded.
And a minute later the gunners merrily ran out of the fires and loaded.
- First! - I heard the command.
Boyko bounced 1st number. A gun rang metallically, deafeningly, and a grenade flew through the heads of all our people under the mountain, whistling, and, far from reaching the enemy, showed the place of its fall with smoke and burst.
The faces of the soldiers and officers cheered up at this sound; everyone got up and took up observations of the visible, as in the palm of your hand, movements below our troops and in front - the movements of the approaching enemy. The sun at that very moment completely emerged from behind the clouds, and this beautiful sound of a single shot and the brilliance of the bright sun merged into one cheerful and cheerful impression.

Two enemy cannonballs had already flown over the bridge, and there was a crush on the bridge. In the middle of the bridge, dismounted from his horse, pressed with his thick body to the railing, stood Prince Nesvitsky.
He, laughing, looked back at his Cossack, who, with two horses in a lead, was standing a few steps behind him.
As soon as Prince Nesvitsky wanted to move forward, the soldiers and wagons again pressed against him and again pressed him against the railing, and he had no choice but to smile.
- What are you, brother, my! - said the Cossack to the Furshtat soldier with a wagon, who was pushing against the infantry crowded v the very wheels and horses, - what a you! No, to wait: you see, the general must pass.
But the furshtat, ignoring the name of the general, shouted at the soldiers blocking his way: “Hey! compatriots! keep to the left, stop! - But the countrywomen, crowding shoulder to shoulder, clinging with bayonets and without interruption, moved along the bridge in one continuous mass. Looking down over the railing, Prince Nesvitsky saw the fast, noisy, low waves of the Enns, which, merging, rippling and bending near the piles of the bridge, overtook one another. Looking at the bridge, he saw equally monotonous living waves of soldiers, kutas, shakos with covers, knapsacks, bayonets, long guns and from under the shakos faces with wide cheekbones, sunken cheeks and carefree tired expressions, and moving legs along the sticky mud dragged onto the boards of the bridge . Sometimes, between the monotonous waves of soldiers, like a splash of white foam in the waves of Enns, an officer in a raincoat, with his physiognomy different from the soldiers, squeezed between the soldiers; sometimes, like a piece of wood winding along the river, a foot hussar, orderly or inhabitant was carried away across the bridge by waves of infantry; sometimes, like a log floating on a river, surrounded on all sides, a company or officer's cart floated over the bridge, superimposed to the top and covered with skins, a wagon.

Sergei Nechaev: the evil genius of the revolution. Sergei Gennadievich Nechaev

Boy from a poor family

"Severe for himself and for others"

smart and dangerous

Biography

Emigration

People's Punishment Society

Second emigration

Extradition and trial

Prisoner of the Peter and Paul Fortress

In literature

Notes

Literature

Links

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Encyclopedic YouTube

Subtitles

Biography

Emigration

People's Punishment Society

Second emigration

Extradition and trial

Prisoner of the Peter and Paul Fortress

Nechaev in the revolutionary movement and in anarchism

Biography

Emigration

People's Punishment Society

Second emigration

Extradition and trial

Prisoner of the Peter and Paul Fortress

Nechaev in the revolutionary movement and in anarchism

In literature

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An excerpt characterizing Nechaev, Sergei Gennadievich

	Sergei Gennadievich Nechaev at Wikiquote
	Sergei Gennadievich Nechaev at Wikimedia Commons